1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system including an image processing apparatus and an information processing apparatus interconnected via a network, an image processing method implemented by this image processing system, an image processing apparatus and an information processing apparatus preferably employed in this image processing system, and image processing programs recorded in computer readable recording mediums to make computers execute processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
In addition to the function of printing according to a print job or a facsimile job immediately when receiving it from an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, image processing apparatuses of recent years have the function of recording such a job temporarily in a recording medium such as a hard disk drive when receiving it, and outputting the job at a user's desirable timing.
Meanwhile, an information processing apparatus having data in a shared folder that can be jointly owned by a plurality of users, sometimes sets for the shared folder, the users' user authority level to use the data stored in the shared folder. For example, it may be a shared folder that permits the users to change the data stored therein, a shared folder that permits the users only to read out the data, or a shared folder that permits the users to perform any operations (full control). In other words, the users who jointly own the shared folder are permitted to use the data stored therein at a user authority level that is set in advance for the shared folder.
However, when an administrator or another person of a shared folder with a certain user authority level, stored in the information processing apparatus, specifies a data piece among those stored in the shared folder and gives a job to an image processing apparatus to record it in a memory of the image processing apparatus, there have been the following problems, conventionally.
That is, the user authority level of users who jointly own the shared folder stored in the information processing apparatus is not continuously effective for the job given to the image processing apparatus. Thus, if the user who gave the job to the image processing apparatus hopes to set for the job, a user authority level that is the same as the one set in advance for the shared folder stored in the information processing apparatus, he/she has to do it manually or in another manner by operating the image processing apparatus. This is extremely troublesome.
On the other hand, some of the image processing apparatuses have the function of classifying data pieces received from information processing apparatuses, by user or group, in segmented memory areas referred to as ‘Boxes’. And it is certainly possible by using the Box function, that a user authority level that is the same as the one set in advance for the shared folder stored in the information processing apparatus, is given to the users who jointly own the shared folder, by creating a group Box that permits use of only users who affiliate a certain group, for example.
As for a technology related to the Box function, according to Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H11-196206, there is a facsimile apparatus that implements a process to sort out received facsimile information pieces. This facsimile apparatus sorts out received facsimile information pieces into Boxes that are memory areas assigned to respective destinations extracted from the facsimile information pieces.
Furthermore, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H11-239238, a facsimile apparatus stores a confidential document into a personal Box that is a memory area assigned to a recipient user of the document and registers the storage location of the confidential document in a Web server of the facsimile apparatus, when receives the confidential document. After that, the facsimile apparatus transmits to the recipient user, a message notifying of the receipt of the confidential document by e-mail. And the facsimile apparatus provides a linked location representing the confidential document when the recipient user who received the message accesses the facsimile apparatus with an ID and a password by operating a personal computer, and he/she is permitted to access the confidential document according to the linked location.
However, if a user hopes to create a group Box and other Boxes by using the Box function described above, he/she still has to complete necessary operations all manually. This is still troublesome.
Furthermore, if data pieces to be processed by a plurality of jobs are stored in different shared folders, a user has to create a group Box for each of the shared folders. This is also troublesome.
The technologies in the publications cited above do not provide a perfect solution to resolve these problems.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.